Angel of Darkness
by Pine Straw
Summary: Amu was sent on a mission to drop off some stuff at the other camps, simple as that, but then something goes haywire along the way, and now, she finds herself as the object of Ikuto's, the prince of her enemies, affection. Complete explanation inside, Amuto, M for violence and language.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **The characters aren't mine, the plot isn't mine, heck, even this chapter isn't mine. None of it's mine. Zero. Zilch. Nada. (But I did rewrite it)

The chapter belongs to ShellyCullen.

And I don't own Shugo Chara.

* * *

**Prologue**

The War

_The year was 2012, the very year everyone agreed with the Mayan's claim that the world would end. And true to their prediction, the world as everyone knew came to a screeching halt. However, the end didn't come with a shattering economy or the spontaneous combustion of the planet, or practically anything people assumed would ruin their lives. The end began with what the world never saw coming: war._

_It ended quickly. No one knew what they were up against._

_The two worlds were in battle. They called themselves Angels of Darkness and claimed they were discovered in the early years of the second millennium. Many were fascinated by the new species._  
_They resembled humans greatly, with characteristic properties of humans; however, these similarities did not bring the two species together._

_The years dragged on as the king of their kind, Johnson Dark, declared war on humans and demanded for them to surrender and allow him to be the king of all. The humans, who believed they knew of greater power than the Angels, refused. This outraged the king, and he sent his soldiers to earth to kill off nearly everything that lived._

_"Kill all, but save the last for your king," Dark told them._

_The war began on the twenty first of December in the year 2011._

_The humans futilely fought back to keep their independence, but they were no match for these creatures, for they kept a dark secret._

_In the fierce battle for dominance or independence, as the sun would disappear below the horizon, black wings spanned from their backs. This revelation left humans in such a state of shock; no one was able to do a thing as the Angels mustered up their strengths of numbers and finished the war._

_And the world fell into panic and chaos._

_Leaders of the world urged their countries, practically pleading the people to hide while they still can, escape while they had the opportunity, and survive with all they had. Many people did try, with every ounce of strength they had, but many were confused and disorientated. During the day, the Angels blended too well, and no one could tell humans and Angels apart. It was only in the darkness, where humans were at their most alert, but weakest state, did the Angels have black wings to let their true colors shine._

_The world was now in a state suspicion and tension._

_Humans were willing to kill all they saw. Strangers, neighbors, friends, family. It didn't matter anymore, now that humans and Angels couldn't be told apart. Humanity was killing itself off and was disappearing._

_The end was coming._

_By now, only a few hundred humans survive, scarcely dispersed in every area. They walk the day, unseen, for the Angels of Darkness have won, and the world is nothing less than doomed._

* * *

Amu shivered violently as she sat under an awning of an abandoned shop. She had found refuge under it in a particularly violent storm. It was cold, no doubt about that, and the rain fell like bullets. It stung when the wind blew the rain into the small area that she curled up in and hit her. Amu wore only a thin t-shirt and a pair of nylon sweatpants from her gym class in school. She had a black backpack on her back filled with two more shirts, three pants, undergarments, bottles of water—that were sitting in front of her, nearly full from collecting rain water—and packages of dried foods and snacks she found around the house.

When the bottle were full, she pulled them back under the awning, screwed the caps back on, and put them back into her bag, uncaring whether or not the clothes in it would get wet. She continued shivering, waiting for the storm to blow over soon.

Amu closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, unsure of how much time has gone by, a teen stood in front of her, seemingly only a few years older than her. He wore a pressed military uniform, and had a stern but soft look in his eyes. An air of authority surrounded him, and he was standing in the rain.

Numbly, the pinkette gestured to the spot beside her under the awning. It wasn't much; she knew she was dripping wet, but it was better than just sitting in the rain. He shook his head and offered a hand out, instead.

Reluctantly, she took it and stood. The boy gave her a slight smile, and she gave a small nod in greeting.

"I'm Kee," he said.

"Amu," she squeaked.

"Last name?" he questioned.

"Hi-Hinamori." She chewed on her bottom lip as she avoided eye contact. "And yours?"

"Hm?" He gave her a questioning look, but then realized what she meant the next moment. "Kee is my last name. I don't really remember my first."

"Oh."

"Anyways," he continued, "I was told to come and find people, and I found you. There's a survival camp a mile from here, and it only takes about twenty minutes to get there if you don't walk well."

"I can," she mumbled.

"Okay."

The two made their way to the camp, where Amu had human contact for the first time in weeks.

"Hi!"

Amu turned around, a bit surprised at the high-pitched voice. A small girl with brown hair looked up at her with tired yet excited eyes. A blonde boy trailed after her with a shy blush on his face.

"I'm Yaya! And that's Tadase behind me," she explained. Tadase shot a small smile and waved.

Amu gave a short nod. "Amu."

* * *

"Hinamori," Kee called from the other side of the room. He was standing with a man, not much older than he was, probably. Amu looked up from her game of cards with Yaya and Tadase.

"Yeah?" she answered.

His eyebrow twitched. "What did I tell you about informalities...?"

Sheepishly, she laughed. "Sorry, sorry. What did you need?"

"Come'ere," he said as he gestured towards himself.

Amu jogged up to him, and responded with a short, "Sir?" Kee felt a bit of self-satisfaction.

"This guy," Kee said as he pointed a thumb to the man beside him, "is Nikaido. He's your mentor for combat and some survival skills."

Amu turned to look at him. Nikaido was a disheveled man with messy hair that looked like it was never combed once in his entire life, wore a raggedy t-shirt with a white wife beater underneath, and grey pants tucked into large army boots. "Hey," he nervously greeted.

Amu quirked an eyebrow as she gave a nod in greeting. "Hello."

"Anyways," Kee interrupted, "I want you two to start immediately tomorrow morning. Set the schedule with her, Nikaido, and I'm sure she'll follow it." Kee gave her a somewhat stern look that said nothing but, '_Or else_.'

"Okey-dokey," he said. "Then, Himamori—"

Amu winced. "It's Hinamori."

"Right. Anyways, Himamori," Amu's eyebrow twitched, but she didn't bother to say anything about his mispronunciation this time, "I think we should start weapons training first, hm?" Reluctantly, the pinkette nodded. "And then we can begin hand-to-hand combat, don't you think?"

"Uh, sure?"

* * *

The pinkette gave another frustrated sigh. "Freaking knives."

"Aw, c'mon, Himamori, throwing knives can be easy!" Nikaido encouraged.

"Hinamori!" Amu corrected, "It's Hinamori!"

"Same difference," the mentor said as he laughed. "I'm serious, though! If you just practice when you can, you can do it! Trust me!"

Amu groaned. "Whatever." Carelessly, she threw the knife that flew across the room to dig into the target. It didn't hit the bull's eye, or anywhere relatively near it, but it hit the target, and Nikaido laughed.

"See? It's easy."

Amu's jaw dropped as she gaped at the silver knife.

"Just practice. We're learning how to shoot with aim next week, and shooting without aim next month," Nikaido explained to her. "So just make sure your aim is spot-on, or we, and possibly some other people, will get into some big trouble, okay?"

Amu gave a short laugh at his implication, and he laughed with her. "Thanks, Nikaido," she smiled.

"You're welcome, kiddo."

* * *

"I'm never gonna start this fire!" Amu threw the sticks across the room.

"Don't worry, Amu, I'm sure you'll get it at some point," Yaya said. The girl sat next to her blazing fire, most likely larger than everyone else in the room got theirs to be.

Amu gave her an, '_Are you serious_,' look, and Yaya laughed.

Furiously, Amu hit the stones against each other, and occasionally, she saw small orange sparks. Holding it closer to the pile of sticks, she hit the stones even harder. The fire flared in her face and nearly engulfed her hands. She cursed under her breath as Yaya cheered.

* * *

"Okay, Himamori," Nikaido said, ignoring Amu's corrections of, '_Hinamori!'_, "let's start target practice with the knives one more time."I'll be your sparring partner this time, okay?"

Amu gave a nod as she put the small knives into straps lined with pockets. She tied the straps to her waist, hidden under her shirt, and her thighs. She strapped one to each of her wrists and slipped one in the back hidden pocket on her pants.

"You ready?" Nikaido asked.

"More or less," Amu shrugged she stood in front of him.

"Let's go ahead and start then."

_Hours later..._

Amu panted, nearly completely out of breath. One of her eyes was shut due to the blood that streaked from her hairline, over her eye, and to the edge of her face. Sweat streamed down her face and through her hair. Her shirt was ripped in multiple places and some had small stains of blood, and her face held hairline cuts.

Nikaido wasn't in much better condition, either. His shirt was torn to almost pieces and blood from a cut on his face ran from his cheek to his chin. He weakly stood, barely able to keep himself on his feet. Sweat made his long hair cling to the sides of his face, and in the heat of combat training, he felt the need to cut some of the locks of hair away.

"Not bad," he mumbled before they both fell from exhaustion, "not bad at all."

* * *

_One year later..._

"You know, Himamori," Nikaido began; Amu didn't even bother trying to correct him, "I think it's about that time."

"Hm? What time?" Amu asked as she looked up from the knife she was polishing.

"I don't have any more to teach you."

"...I know."

"You do?" Nikaido gave her a questioning look.

"Yeah. All we've been doing is sparring lately, and I always feel like I'll end up killing you during weapons practice if I can't hold back," Amu explained as she continued rubbing the cotton cloth on the smooth metal.

Nikaido gave a short laugh. "I knew there's been something off your game lately."

"More or less," she shrugged as she put down the knife to grab another one. "So what are you going to do, now that you don't have anyone to mentor anymore?"

"You forget," he said, "new kids come in every week or so. I get to teach them."

"Ah." Amu continued to polish the set of knives as Nikaido began cleaning his gun.

"Why did you learn to fight?" Nikaido asked her.

It took her by surprise, and her hand slipped, making her nearly cut her thumb off. "What?" He repeated the question, and she gave him a strange look. "It's obvious, isn't it? We have to have a way to defend ourselves?"

Nikaido continued scrubbing the barrel. "It's not just that, Himamori."

"Eh?" Amu stopped polishing her knife and looked up at him. "What do you mean by that?"

"If I told you, it'd be too easy," he teased as he waved the gun in a teasing manner.

"But—!"

"No buts," Nikaido said as he got up and patted his pants.

He reached over to ruffle her hair. "See you around, kiddo."


	2. Enter The Prince

**Disclaimer: **The characters aren't mine (/Sigh), the chapter is partly mine but mostly not (because I added, deleted, and changed a lot of things /Shot), and the only thing that's mine is...whatever I changed. Maybe. I think.

Anyways, I changed some character profiles, and whatnot. So if it's a disappointment compared to the original, I'm sorry. (Even though I kind of like mine better even though I'm a little biased. /Stabbed)

So _most_ of the chapter belongs to ShellyCullen.

And I don't own Shugo Chara.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Enter The Prince

"Amu!" The voice rung in her eardrums. On instinct, she quickly threw her hand out a swiped the air. When nothing was gripped in her fist, she opened her eyes.

"Missed me!" a cheerful voice teased. The loud voice was hard to ignore as Amu stared up at a giggling Yaya.

"What is it, Yaya?" she asked in an exasperate tone. Amu thought Yaya surely knew how tired she was from the last mission she was assigned. Commander Kee had begun assigning her the night shifts, and she was getting little to no rest.

The young girl pouted and suddenly became airborne as she curled into a ball and landed next to Amu on the bed, which groaned in protest of the weight.

"The commander asked me to give this to you," she stated as she passed a piece of crumpled paper to the pinkette from bandage wrapped fingers. Amu urgently grabbed the paper and swiftly read it as her golden eyes scanned the paper.

**Hinamori Amu, age 15.**  
_Report in vault by 8:05 hours for mission assignment._  
**Commander Kee**

Amy groaned as she rolled her eyes. "How many more until I get a vacation?" she asked herself.

"Well, you're the best!" Yaya interjected, as if the comment was supposed to make the older feel better.

Amu rolled her eyes, yet again, and said, "Other people just don't know how to hold a gun." She sighed. "It seems like they just pick you up in a second when you've been seen blindly shooting a gun at an enemy. What time is it?"

"Time for you to get a watch!" she teased. Amy gave her an irritated look as Yaya giggled to herself. "It's almost seven. You have time."

Two years ago, Amu would have laughed in your face if you told her she'd be waking up before twelve during the summer.

_So much has changed since then_, Amu thought to herself.

She glanced over at Yaya, who was now lying down on her back beside her. The girl's cherubic face, which used to be full of innocence and curiosity, was no longer so; the bags under her eyes and the hollowness of her checks took it away from her. She wore the same thing most days: A brown t-shirt that clung to her body, blue pants made of nylon that were tucked in a pair of thick, brown hiking boots. Her hands, the most delicate parts of her small body, were calloused and wrapped tightly in layers and layers of bandages.

Amu stood from her sitting position on the bed. "I'm taking a quick shower, so it's fine if you want to grab something to eat in the lunchroom." Yaya sat up, beaming with a ray of happiness Amu may never understand. The pinkette looked away, unable to look at Yaya's expression as she tried to suppress the memories of her own suffering.

"It's fine. I'll wait for you," the girl smiled.

She walked across the small bathroom, and cranked the knob in the shower and tub combination to turn on the water before peeling away the thin and bland clothes she wore and placing them into the basket of similar, dirty clothes. Amu reached to touch the water, in slight hopes for it to be warm. It never was. She jumped in, already used to the low temperature. She welcomed the cold sting, anyways, needing something to wipe off the tiredness from her if she was to complete the mission. Rubbing her eyes and splashing in her face, Amu felt as refreshed as she could get and stepped out. She wrapped a towel tightly around her body and stood before the mirror.

The person that stared back scared her sometimes. Her face was thin, and her cheeks were nearly hollowed out. She had small scratches on her face and scars that ran across her neck and collarbone. Her hair, which looked almost purple in its wetness, seemed to be the only thing that had even remote traces of life. Amu's arms were thin and strange. But it was now was her body at its strongest—or as strong as it could get.

She sighed at the reflection as she tore her gaze from it, going to dry her hair.

After tangling the hairdryer out of its wires and drying her hair to some extent—the hairdryer had as much strength as someone fanning her hair dry—she pulled a relatively clean shirt from the top drawer and worn pants from the bottom. Tucking the tight, long-sleeved v-neck into the waist of the fitted nylon pants, she pulled a belt out of the drawer and looped it through her pants. Amu grabbed a pair of black boots, similar to Yaya's, and slid them on as she tucked the hems of her pants into them.

Most of the clothes they wore were now embedded with thin plates of steel, and they were required to cover everything from the neck down. Some died from heat strokes during the summer.

Amu brushed her hair, the only part of her body she could appropriately care for, and put it into a tight French braid with an X clip on the side of her head to keep her bangs from falling into her eyes.

She stared into the mirror, waiting for something to mystically change, or for the girl she was two years ago to be found. That girl didn't appear.

Amu walked out of the bathroom to find Yaya using Amu's laptop. It sat on her outstretched legs as the screen lit up her face. Yaya clicked and tapped the buttons with clumsy and cut fingers.

"Ready?" Amu asked, hoping Yaya would let her hands rest. The girl smiled and closed the portable computer with a click.

"Yeah."

* * *

Amu got to the vault at eight. Commander Kee stood tall in his decorated uniform. Some people joked that he had took it off a dead high-rank soldier. He says it was his father's. But it was to everyone's common knowledge he was only at the age of seventeen. His face was grave and his hazel eyes hard as he watched Yaya and Amu approach him. His gaze lightened a bit when he saw them.

_Sometimes, I wonder was he was like before all this started, assuming he was only fifteen then_, Amu thought.

"Sleep well, Hinamori?" he gruffly asked me, his tone carrying nothing by authority. He was a natural born leader.

She shrugged then nodded. "As well as it gets," she mumbled to herself, knowing he couldn't reply to such an answer.

Silence filled the room as she looked around the vault, the heart of their base. Steel walls lined the large room that was big enough for hundreds of army tanks. Amu wonders how they could keep it so secure. Then she was reminded that it's underground. But she still wonders how they could find a place like this.

Ultraviolet lamps lit every inch of the room, leaving no place for darkness to settle. There was a large table in the middle for the Commander and anyone else for mission briefings and reports.

The vault was silent, until she came in. Her small feet clanked against the lighted flooring, and the shoes she wore seemed to be styled for the mission. She resembled a small child, even more so than Yaya because of her height, but her expression was cold and nearly froze the room. The long, blonde tresses that fell from her head were shockingly perfect, as if she worked all day and night to get them right, and only a thin, black head band kept any hair from falling into her face. She walked with grace and delicacy, stepping before the commander.

Amu looked around for anyone else. "Where are the others?"

Commander Kee shook his head. "This is it. You and Mashiro are going into town today."

"If I may, sir," the small girl quipped, "we'll need a backup team on standby in case something happens."

The Commander nodded. "I know. I am aware of the dangers, but you two are the best we have. Teams are going to be unnecessary for the time being due to the fact that most of our men have been injured in the last mission.

"I'm sure you all will be able to handle it with little trouble. Just make it back before nightfall."

His words of little trouble had difficulty convincing Amu as she chewed the inside of her cheek.

"Today, you'll be delivering care packages to the other survival camps across town. I assume you'll be there and get back on time." The two nodded. "Good."

He pulled two bracelets out of the box that had been strapped to his belt loop and secured it around their wrists. "Because the last mission had multiple casualties, I'm issuing the two of you tracking devices the tech team designed. They're prototypes and need to be tested."

_Need to be tested? _Amu thought.

The silver band of metal beeped once and silenced. It'd be difficult to assume the thing as anything other than an accessory. As Mashiro headed to the vault door and Amu followed, a hand gripped her arm and pulled her back.

"Amu, be careful," Yaya sniffled. Amu nodded as she glanced at the hand that gripped her arm impossibly tight with such cuts.

"I always am," Amu answered as she smiled.

Commander Kee punched in the security code of the door, and the steel barriers slid open with an ominous groan. It was completely dark.

"I'm counting on your girls," the Commander added as they stepped through. The doors slid shut behind them.

There was a clanking of bolts in the system as the pair stood in pitch black before the streams of light appeared at their feet.

Amu glanced at the small blonde at her side, who was already looking up at her. The two nodded in mutual agreement, and the pinkette punched in another series of numbers in the electronic keypad at the door.

The small light above the keypad pinged green, and Mashiro reached out to open the steel door.

Outside, there were no birds chirping, no wind to rustle the trees. Steel, grass, and dirt surrounded them. The brown patched of mud under their feet, the green of new life that reminded them of the lost world they once lived in.

Behind a boulder was a hole that was covered by weeds and leaves. It stored bottled water, packaged dried food, weapons—bows and arrows, guns, knives—and maps. Amu took four of the bottles of water and two packs of dried meat and fruit.

"The camp is about eight miles north. Is this your first time going out there?" Mashiro said as she looked at the map. Amu nodded as she inspected a knife. "Walking will take too long, so we'll have to try and find the shortest way and run a lot."

* * *

The sun was blazing above their heads; a giant spotlight that could reveal their true identity. Amu ignored the thought as she headed toward an alleyway—

"An alley...?" Amu muttered as she looked around. There was never an alleyway here before, and this was the only road to take to arrive at the nearest survival camp.

It was obviously a trap.

Mashiro reached for the gun that was subtly strapped to her thigh, but Amu put her hand out.

"Hinamori, what're you doing?" she hissed as she swatted Amu's hand away.

"Don't," the taller murmured as she took a step toward the leering darkness, "not yet."

"You're actually going in?" she said in an exaggerated tone. Amu turned to look at her, only to be surprised at the scowl on Mashiro's face: The first emotion she's seen on the girl's face all day.

Amu smirked. "They want us to go through this trap, and there's no other way around it. We might as well see what we're going to be up against." The pinkette gestured Mashiro to follow, and the blonde reluctantly did as the darkness of the alley swallowed them.

Amu's hand itched to reach for the knife tucked in her belt as they walked deeper into the alley. They were alone with no one else, but the eerie sense of them being watched was unmistakable.

The pair reached the end where a brick wall that towered over them blocked their way.

Just as they expected: Amu and Mashiro were trapped.

"Lost?" a teasing voice echoed. Amu turned in the direction of the voice, her eyes falling on a boy with blonde hair that stood in spikes. His clothes were torn apart into rags, and it seemed only his pants were intact. There was no sunlight in the alley, and the Angel's black wings were already spanned out. "Looks like we have a couple of survivors." His laugh was cracked as he chuckled.

Amu narrowed her eyes at him as she glared. "Let us out." She knew he would refuse, and there would be blood spilt.

"Ahahaha, I don't think that's part of the plan," the Angel laughed as his smiled widened. His tone was sickly sweet, and Amu felt the slight need to vomit. "How many of you are left?"

Amu reached for the knife in her belt and the pistol that was strapped to her leg as Mashiro did the same.

"None." The bullet was shot with a head splitting bang, and the Angel that stood before them dematerialized into mist. Amu scowled as she tried to figure out what happened—

"Shit," she cursed as she grabbed Mashiro's arm and ran for the entrance.

"What—?"

"It's an illusion. Angels have some tricks up their sleeves, and this is one of them. If we don't make it out, they'll—!"

At the entrance, a group of Angels awaited them, along with the first one Amu thought she shot. He was completely unscratched.

Amu pushed Mashiro behind her, uncaring for the small girl's protests.

"So," the tallest one drawled, "there are still humans hiding. Very well, we'll hunt you all down." They surrounded the pair. Amy calculated some odds in her head and decided they needed a distraction. Something that could really grab their attention…

"What's going on?" a smooth voice called from the air. Not moments later, a young man about Amu's age appeared before the group. He wore a sleeveless tan leather vest that seemed a size too big and a long-sleeved blood red shirt that hugged his body. His long legs adorned fitted black pants with the hems inside boots that rose to his knees. A cracked silver crown sat crooked on his head, and half was buried in dark blue tresses that fell on the pale skin of his face.

"Well?" he lazily asked, expecting an answer.

Amu narrowed her golden eyes. _It couldn't be…_ she thought.

The tallest one gave a cry of surprise before he deeply bowed, and the other behind mirrored his movements. "Prince," he started as he stared at the pinkette behind his prince. Amu glared at him in returned, and a crooked smirk stretched across his face. "We've found survivors and conclude there are more hiding in the area," he smoothly answered.

"Oh," the prince said, "really." The prince turned around to look at Amu. There was curiousness in his eyes, and Amy nearly stuck a middle finger at him. "Very well, then."

He stepped into the shadows, and Amy couldn't feel his presence anymore.

The leader, the two humans assumed, turned to smirk at them. However, while the prince was occupying their attention, Mashiro had slipped more guns and knives out of the bag, loaded the firearms, and handed a couple to Amu. The pinkette let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Just as the Angels pounced, the two began firing. Amu began blindly shooting in the darkness for the prince, and when the prince flew up to the roof of the building beside them, she knew she nearly hit him. The underlings were fighting off Mashiro, who was landing a barrage of kicks and punches on all who jumped on her.

They made eye contact, and the blonde nodded as she continued. Amu smirked back as she jumped from wall to wall to reach the top of the building to have an encounter with the prince.

Suddenly, one of the Angels flew above her with a deranged look of happiness. She kicked the wall and tossed herself to the other side and quickly twisted her body to jump back at the Angel. Landing a solid kick on his chest with both her feet, the Angel coughed, splattering dark blood on her boots. Back on the ground, the other Angels moved from Mashiro to Amu. And she smirked.

Amu ran toward them as fast as her thin legs could carry her, and she pushed her feet forward, falling on her side and sliding under the Angels, randomly shooting at them above her.

There were gurgles and howls of pain as the ones who were hit darkened from pale to storm grey. They collapsed in a pile of dust and disintegrated to nothing. Sliding toward Mashiro, the blonde grabbed Amu's leg and using the pinkette's momentum pulled her into the air. Airborne, Amu threw knives that landed in the shoulders of the remaining Angels.

Amu twisted herself in the air to land on her feet with a powerful crater under her as she spun to shoot at the Angel who was attempting to grab her. He, too, collapsed to nothing. The rest of the Angels cursed and flew away before the prince came back. Amu and Mashiro stood only a few feet from each other as the prince walked toward them with an air of contempt and pompousness. They both had guns pointed at him with knives in their hands.

"I can't say I'm not impressed," he said as he smirked. "You really are the best," the dark prince said as he disappeared to mist, "_Hinamori_," he finished in her ear.

Whipping around, the two prepared to stab him, but he was already gone.

The two panted hard, out of breath from the scrimmage with the other Angels.

Mashiro fell on her behind as she breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, arms wrapped around Amu and she was whisked into the air. Mashiro cursed as she pulled a loaded gun from her side and tried to shoot, but to no avail. The pinkette and the prince were too high in the air.

Instinctively, Amu gripped the nearest solid object, which happened to be the Prince's arm. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and feel her stomach clench. She bit her lip, hard, to keep from the screech in her throat at bay.

"I can tell you're scared," he teased as he chuckled. The baritone of his voice vibrated through her chest, and she fought to keep the blush from rising in her cheeks.

A gloved hand brushed across her pale cheek, and she didn't have the nerve to turn her head to bite it. Instead, she gripped his arm tighter, in fear that he might let go.

The wind rushed in her ears, and she knew they were going back down. She steadied herself on the ground, but wobbled and held on even tighter to the fabric of his shirt.

"Until next time," he murmured before grabbing the back of her neck. He pulled her into a rough kiss and disappeared.


	3. Trust

**Disclaimer: **Oh my gosh, you guys, almost the entire chapter is mine. Anyways, most of the chapter is mine, the other portion is ShellyCullen's, the plot is ShellyCullen's, and the characters aren't mine.

On another note, I might not be able to update frequently. I picked the hardest AP classes that are available to me, sob. So, yeah, I'm buried in summer work (which I barely even started on OTL). So even though I'm bursting with inspiration, I don't have time to get it down, ugh. But I'm pretty determined to keep this going and never have it on hold until the finish, so I'll still update every week (or I'll at least try to...).

And Shugo Chara isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Favor

"We should have asked him where he dropped us off," Mashiro complained for the umpteenth time since the prince let them off near a river.

"At least he let us go," Amu grumbled, digging through the bag as they were walking for some of the dried meat.

"In the middle of nowhere," the blonde mumbled.

The taller girl rolled her eyes as she bit the slab of beef between her teeth to put the bag back on her shoulders. "We can look for landmarks and locate our position on the map."

"Hinamori," she stopped as Amu turned around, "I'm pretty sure there aren't waterfalls on the map," the girl said. She stuck an arm out in the direction of the waterfall that fell into the river with a thunderous roar.

Amu winced. "Let's just keep following the river."

Mashiro gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine."

Moments of silence followed after, and Mashiro gave a cry of frustration. "Dammit! We should have asked!"

Silently, Amu fumed. _She's said that too many times already!_

To take her mind off her frustration with the prince's lack of sense of direction and Mashiro's complaining, she began to tear off thin strips of the dried meat with undying determination instead of just biting off medium sized chunks from it—which was she was doing earlier.

"Hinarmori~" Mashiro whined. "Let's take a break; I'm tired."

Wordlessly, Amu pulled her bag off her shoulders, dug around, and pulled out the bag of dried fruit. "Deal with it," she mumbled, somewhat irritated. She tossed the package to the small girl, who accepted it with a small pout.

Now munching on a slice of a dried apple, Mashiro asked for the map.

"Okay, I think I know where we are," the girl told Amu. She pointed to a spot in the far corner of the map. "We're about twenty miles from our camp, a bit more than eighteen miles to the farthest camp."

"Are you sure that's where we are?" Amu asked, not completely convinced.

"Yeah, we're roughly half a mile from the valley _here_," Mashiro calculated as she pointed to the area between two black triangles. "And the valley I'm talking about is _there_." She pointed to a valley that had a river running through it to the left.

"...Sounds good. Let's go."

* * *

They were walking side by side and were silent for the past couple hours, until Mashiro broke the silence.

"Rima," she said so abruptly, Amu choked on the water she was drinking from the river.

After a bout of coughing, Amu managed to cough up a forced, "What?"

"My first name is Rima," she repeated. Then she turned to give Amu a sharp look. "Don't make me repeat it again."

"I won't," Amu said as she held her hands up in a somewhat defensive manner, "I won't."

"And yours?" Rima asked.

Amu quirked an eyebrow. "Amu."

"Amu," she echoed. "That was the name of someone at my school."

The pinkette blinked rapidly, never hearing of anyone with the same name. "Really?"

"No, but her name was Amy."

* * *

"Lost, are we?" a voice asked, almost teasingly.

Immediately, Amu pulled a knife from the strap around her thigh, and Rima whipped out the gun that was holstered on her waist. They stood back to back, unknowing where the voice came from.

An Angel stepped out of the shadow from a tree. His fingers were laced behind his head, and his face carried a wicked smirk.

Amu, who was facing in his direction, scowled. It was the same Angel from the alley and from when the prince captured them. Rima stayed in the back to back position, throwing a glance over her shoulder.

"I know it's a bad time to ask," she began as Angels began to reveal themselves, "but should I call you Hinamori or Amu?"

"Either is fine, but for self satisfactory purposes, I think it's cooler if you call me by my last name," the pinkette answered as she looked up at the sky. _Looks like four to five o'clock,_ she thought to herself.

"I was just thinking," Rima said as she pulled the trigger on the gun, narrowly missing the Angel's shoulder as he jumped out the way, "the same thing."

And all hell broke loose as some Angels and Rima jumped at each other, leaving Amu to stand there with two other Angels circling her, including the blonde from the alley.

"Y'know," the blonde began as the smirk on his face stretched wider, "I was wondering why the prince didn't kill you." Amu scowled at his words. "But now that I can get a good look at you, I can see his reasoning."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you really trying to hit one me _now_?"

His smirk fell. "Maybe."

He and the other Angel took that as some kind of cue and jolted into a sprint towards her. She whipped her head around, looking for a quick escape. Amu sighed through her nose and pulled a gun out of the holster on her waist; she threw the knife at one of them with seemingly lightning speed and aimed a shot at the other. The blonde Angel moved to the left, narrowly getting his arm cut off and escaping the sharp metal with a deep cut on the outer of his triceps. He scowled and leapt impossibly high above their heads, pulling his limbs in and dropping like a rock with his feet pointed at Amu.

The other Angel, who had the bullet soaring across the field toward him, dodged it, smirking in vague satisfaction and continued to run at Amu at breakneck speed.

Figuring out what the blonde Angel was doing and seeing where the other Angel was running towards, she stood in waiting—waiting for the chance that she narrowly took to leap out of the way before the airborne Angel landed at hundreds of pounds of pressure on the other, effectively creating a massive crater under the force of impact.

Amu ran towards Rima, who seemed to glide through the air and whip around to land hit after hit on the Angels that attempted to engage in combat.

"I got it, Hinamori!" the blonde reassured. "Just wait a while and these guys will get themselves knocked out in no time."

"Uh-huh…" Amu said as she quirked an eyebrow.

And the Angels begrudgingly agreed. They scowled and ran towards the Angels Amu was with earlier to pick them up and flee into the forest.

Rima was panting hard from exhaustion and Amu could barely keep herself from falling to her knees.

"How are we so," Rima paused as she gulped another breath of air, "_tired_?"

Amu supported herself with the hands on her knees and panted as she held up a finger for every reason. "Dehydration, malnutrition, the like."

Rima gave her a confused look, and Amu shrugged. "My mentor talked a lot during practice."

The blonde gave her a look of somewhat acknowledgment and said, "I say we camp out here for the night."

The pinkette shot her a look that couldn't have said anything else but, '_Are you stupid or dumb?'_

Rima sighed. "Guess not, huh?"

"No." Amu shook her head in exasperation and pulled the map out.

Rima groaned as she hoisted the large care package on her back and followed Amu into the dark depths of the forest.

* * *

"Geez, Hinamori, I was wondering when you were going to get here!"

Sheepishly, she gave a laugh and averted eye contact with General Jin. He was the commander's brother; Kee was only older by minutes. They looked like the twins they were, but judging by personality, one could barely tell. Kee needed more control and always seemed uptight, whereas Jin was easygoing and only loosely held onto his subordinates.

Rima gave him a short nod, which he returned with a smile and short greeting.

Suddenly, his face turned serious. "Some scouts told me you were captured." It was more like a statement, and Amu knew. She looked at him in the eye and gave a slow nod. "Mashiro, also?" Another nod. "Strange," he muttered to himself.

"They let us go—!" Rima jabbed Amu in the side, hard, with her elbow, "I mean, the prince let us go...sir," she added as an afterthought.

Jin nodded and rubbed his chin. "Okay," he answered. "Did he set conditions, or…?"

"He said he'll hold me to a future favor."

The young general gave a thoughtful nod. "Alright. I'll keep this bit of information in mind. Be sure to tell my brother what happened." He turned around and left, leaving Rima and Amu standing in the middle of the large room.

"Don't you think he should have been more worried?" Rima suddenly asked.

Amu gave her a look. "What?"

"The prince said we were unconscious for at least a day."

Amu shook her head. "And?"

"In normal circumstances, being gone for a day doesn't really strike as odd, but in this situation, what with Angels running around hunting down humans, don't you think he'd be a little more concerned? I mean, think about it, he would have called Kee, right? And would ask for the statuses of the personnel, which he had been expecting to send the care package, but instead, he let it be."

"What are you talking about," Amu deadpanned. _This is getting nowhere_.

"We were supposed to be here the night before," Rima continued, "but we weren't."

The pinkette sighed. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

The small blonde glared up at Amu. "What I mean is, he should have been more concerned, instead of just calmly asking where we've been and why we weren't here. He shouldn't have just said, "Oh my gosh, Hinamori, you're finally here blah blah," he should have freaked, demanding what happened and stuff. I mean, that's what I think the general would really do. And he didn't even ask for the care package!" The girl turned and gestured to the large canvas backpack.

Amu shook her head. "I still don't get it."

"Obviously," Rima murmured to herself.

"I heard that."

"I don't care." The blonde sighed. "Look, just keep an eye out for him, alright? He's acting different, and it's giving me a bad vibe."

Amu opened her mouth to say something, but Rima hushed her and said something about someone coming.

"Hello?" The voice echoed, and a boy walked out from the doorway. He turned his head to look around, and when he spotted the duo, he smiled and waved. "Hey!"

Awkwardly, Amu gave a short nod and Rima slightly waved.

He ran up to them, and said, "The general sent me to get you guys. He said Mashiro should know her way around, but he wanted me to show you guys to where you'll be staying for the night."

Rima held a hand up to keep him from continuing. "It's fine. Tell the general we'll be leaving soon."

The pinkette discreetly pinched Rima's side. "What she means is, we'll be leaving to our room soon."

The boy gave them a confused look, shrugged, and turned to walk away.

The blonde gave Amu a glare, to which Amu returned with throwing her arms in the air and a face as they followed the boy.

'_What were you thinking_?' Amu furiously mouthed.

'_Hello! Suspicious general!_' Rima mouthed back with equal furiousness.

They went into a long hallway, and the boy went into an explanation of hallways full of rooms for different things. "The right hall on this floor is used as a housing type of thing."

Disinterested, Amu and Rima numbly nodded. Not that the boy noticed; he was walking in front of them.

Suddenly he stopped, and the two nearly ran into him. "Anyways, here's the room you'll stay in for the night!" he said with a grin. "If you need anything, find someone around somewhere!"

He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "It'll stay unlocked unless you lock it from the inside."

Amu nodded and walked in, examining the sparsely furnished room. The walls were painted a smooth dark blue and the beds were hanging from the ceiling on nylon ropes.

The orange sunlight that seeped through the leaves of bushes, stones, and finally the window lit the room and gave Amu a slight headache from the sharp contrast of colors. Nonetheless, Amu gave somewhat of a contented sigh. She couldn't remember when the last time she stayed in a room with a window was.

Rima had disappeared behind the door that probably led to the bathroom, and Amu let herself lay down in the bed beside the window. She felt the need to completely relax—something she hasn't been able to do since her parents—

_No, no, no, no, don't go there_, Amu thought to herself as she violently shook her head, as if that could rid those thoughts.

Instead, she closed her eyes, breathed in and out slowly through her nose and let her mind drift away from the dark parts of her thoughts. It still went back to the war, the humans in hiding…the prince.

Her clothes stuck to her skin uncomfortably as she waiting for Rima to finish with diminishing patience. When the blonde girl walked out in a black t-shirt and dull green sweatpants that held her ankles in elastic cuffs, Amu stood and went into the bathroom to take a—cold—shower.

She turned off the water and pulled on a tight black t-shirt and grey track pants that barely stretched down to her ankle. Amu walked out through the door with her clothes in her hands. Carefully, she pulled the pieces of metal plating from the garments and laid them on top of her folded clothes next to the bag of supplies.

She laid down in the bed, thinking to herself.

_How much longer will this war go on_? she asked herself before falling the depths of sleep swallowed her.

* * *

"_Mom, do you know what those _things_ are coming out of the guy's back?" Amu asked as she pointed to the television. Her mom picked up the remote control in the kitchen and turned it off._

"_Nothing, Amu. Hey, dad and I found this board game in the closet in the basement. Do you want to play with us and Ami?"_

_._

"_School can't be canceled!" Amu exclaimed, incredulous. "Midterm exams start today!"_

_Her father gave her a slight smile. "I guess they start tomorrow, then."_

_._

"_Hide while you still can! Escape! Survi—!" the mayor pleaded on the television. Amu's eyes widened in interest._

"_Mom! I think they're doing that fake documentary thing again!" Amu called from the living room._

"_What?" her mom asked as she poked a head from the corner to look. "Oh, yes, honey, the fake documentaries…right."_

"_Yeah, anyways, are dad and Ami going to be back by dinner? Her dance lessons aren't that important," Amu asked._

"_I don't know, dear." The pinkette didn't miss the sad tone laced in the answer._

"..._Do you even know where they are?"_

_Amu's mother dropped the plate, and it shattered on the floor. "No..."_

.

"Hinamori! Hey, Amu! _Amu!_"

She jolted, immediately sitting up. Amu looked around, seeing the blue walls of the room and Rima's worried eyes. She panted and buried her thin fingers into her mess of bubblegum pink hair.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, concern weaved into the question.

Amu gave a shaky sigh. "Yeah," she muttered, "yeah." Cold sweat wet the roots of her hair, and her heart pounded in her chest.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Amu pulled her hands out of her sticky hair and laid them in her lap. She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall.

"It's six-thirty, if you can't read it well," Rima said.

A heavy silence hung in the air, and Amu felt the need to cry—not that she really could.

"Two years is a long time," the blonde said.

Meekly, Amu nodded.

Mashiro began tracing circles into her other palm. "My parents fought a lot, and I was usually caught in the middle or was the cause of it."

The pinkette looked at her with sorry eyes, and Rima shook her head. "Nothing could be done about it, but still they lived together. I didn't know why, honestly. And I hated them for it. But when the Angels," she stopped abruptly, clutching her heart, "when the Angels showed up and killed them." She drew a shaky breath in. "Oh God, I couldn't do a single thing but realize how important they really were."

Amu put her hand on her shoulder, and Rima stopped. "My dad and sister went missing before my mom did. I don't really know if they're alive or not, but I know my mom's gone." The pain rocketed through her chest, and Amu found herself doing the same thing Rima did. She grasped the fabric that covered her heart. "They tried to keep the whole thing a secret from me," she murmured, more to herself.

Heavy silence filled the room once more, and Amu sighed.

"Honestly, I don't really think it helps to talk about it," the pinkette said. "It doesn't change what happened."

"Yeah."

"…We should probably get ready to leave and tell the general we're leaving early."

Rima turned to look at her. "We don't tell him anything. We leave the care package with one of the subordinates and go back. It's an eight mile difference, and we need to get back fast."

Reluctantly, Amu sighed an, "Alright."

* * *

They walked through the deserted town. It seemed a bit different from the last time they went through, though Amu couldn't tell what.

Suddenly, the sound of running feet rushed behind her and the surge of wind made her loose hair fly in every direction.

She pulled the knife out from the pocket in the back of her pants, and Mashiro whipped her pistol out. The clouds drifted with the wind, and the sun was blocked out. A large shadow loomed over them and slowly grew smaller as the airborne object—er, person—landed on the ground.

In front of Amu stood the prince, with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. "I'll need that favor from you now."


	4. Favor

**Disclaimer: **Oh my gosh, you guys, almost the entire chapter is mine. Anyways, most of the chapter is mine, the other portion is ShellyCullen's, the plot is ShellyCullen's, and the characters aren't mine.

On another note, I might not be able to update frequently. I picked the hardest AP classes that are available to me, sob. So, yeah, I'm buried in summer work (which I barely even started on OTL). So even though I'm bursting with inspiration, I don't have time to get it down, ugh. But I'm pretty determined to keep this going and never have it on hold until the finish, so I'll still update every week (or I'll at least try to...).

And Shugo Chara isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Favor

"We should have asked him where he dropped us off," Mashiro complained for the umpteenth time since the prince let them off near a river.

"At least he let us go," Amu grumbled, digging through the bag as they were walking for some of the dried meat.

"In the middle of nowhere," the blonde mumbled.

The taller girl rolled her eyes as she bit the slab of beef between her teeth to put the bag back on her shoulders. "We can look for landmarks and locate our position on the map."

"Hinamori," she stopped as Amu turned around, "I'm pretty sure there aren't waterfalls on the map," the girl said. She stuck an arm out in the direction of the waterfall that fell into the river with a thunderous roar.

Amu winced. "Let's just keep following the river."

Mashiro gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine."

Moments of silence followed after, and Mashiro gave a cry of frustration. "Dammit! We should have asked!"

Silently, Amu fumed. _She's said that too many times already!_

To take her mind off her frustration with the prince's lack of sense of direction and Mashiro's complaining, she began to tear off thin strips of the dried meat with undying determination instead of just biting off medium sized chunks from it—which was she was doing earlier.

"Hinarmori~" Mashiro whined. "Let's take a break; I'm tired."

Wordlessly, Amu pulled her bag off her shoulders, dug around, and pulled out the bag of dried fruit. "Deal with it," she mumbled, somewhat irritated. She tossed the package to the small girl, who accepted it with a small pout.

Now munching on a slice of a dried apple, Mashiro asked for the map.

"Okay, I think I know where we are," the girl told Amu. She pointed to a spot in the far corner of the map. "We're about twenty miles from our camp, a bit more than eighteen miles to the farthest camp."

"Are you sure that's where we are?" Amu asked, not completely convinced.

"Yeah, we're roughly half a mile from the valley _here_," Mashiro calculated as she pointed to the area between two black triangles. "And the valley I'm talking about is _there_." She pointed to a valley that had a river running through it to the left.

"...Sounds good. Let's go."

* * *

They were walking side by side and were silent for the past couple hours, until Mashiro broke the silence.

"Rima," she said so abruptly, Amu choked on the water she was drinking from the river.

After a bout of coughing, Amu managed to cough up a forced, "What?"

"My first name is Rima," she repeated. Then she turned to give Amu a sharp look. "Don't make me repeat it again."

"I won't," Amu said as she held her hands up in a somewhat defensive manner, "I won't."

"And yours?" Rima asked.

Amu quirked an eyebrow. "Amu."

"Amu," she echoed. "That was the name of someone at my school."

The pinkette blinked rapidly, never hearing of anyone with the same name. "Really?"

"No, but her name was Amy."

* * *

"Lost, are we?" a voice asked, almost teasingly.

Immediately, Amu pulled a knife from the strap around her thigh, and Rima whipped out the gun that was holstered on her waist. They stood back to back, unknowing where the voice came from.

An Angel stepped out of the shadow from a tree. His fingers were laced behind his head, and his face carried a wicked smirk.

Amu, who was facing in his direction, scowled. It was the same Angel from the alley and from when the prince captured them. Rima stayed in the back to back position, throwing a glance over her shoulder.

"I know it's a bad time to ask," she began as Angels began to reveal themselves, "but should I call you Hinamori or Amu?"

"Either is fine, but for self satisfactory purposes, I think it's cooler if you call me by my last name," the pinkette answered as she looked up at the sky. _Looks like four to five o'clock,_ she thought to herself.

"I was just thinking," Rima said as she pulled the trigger on the gun, narrowly missing the Angel's shoulder as he jumped out the way, "the same thing."

And all hell broke loose as some Angels and Rima jumped at each other, leaving Amu to stand there with two other Angels circling her, including the blonde from the alley.

"Y'know," the blonde began as the smirk on his face stretched wider, "I was wondering why the prince didn't kill you." Amu scowled at his words. "But now that I can get a good look at you, I can see his reasoning."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you really trying to hit one me _now_?"

His smirk fell. "Maybe."

He and the other Angel took that as some kind of cue and jolted into a sprint towards her. She whipped her head around, looking for a quick escape. Amu sighed through her nose and pulled a gun out of the holster on her waist; she threw the knife at one of them with seemingly lightning speed and aimed a shot at the other. The blonde Angel moved to the left, narrowly getting his arm cut off and escaping the sharp metal with a deep cut on the outer of his triceps. He scowled and leapt impossibly high above their heads, pulling his limbs in and dropping like a rock with his feet pointed at Amu.

The other Angel, who had the bullet soaring across the field toward him, dodged it, smirking in vague satisfaction and continued to run at Amu at breakneck speed.

Figuring out what the blonde Angel was doing and seeing where the other Angel was running towards, she stood in waiting—waiting for the chance that she narrowly took to leap out of the way before the airborne Angel landed at hundreds of pounds of pressure on the other, effectively creating a massive crater under the force of impact.

Amu ran towards Rima, who seemed to glide through the air and whip around to land hit after hit on the Angels that attempted to engage in combat.

"I got it, Hinamori!" the blonde reassured. "Just wait a while and these guys will get themselves knocked out in no time."

"Uh-huh…" Amu said as she quirked an eyebrow.

And the Angels begrudgingly agreed. They scowled and ran towards the Angels Amu was with earlier to pick them up and flee into the forest.

Rima was panting hard from exhaustion and Amu could barely keep herself from falling to her knees.

"How are we so," Rima paused as she gulped another breath of air, "_tired_?"

Amu supported herself with the hands on her knees and panted as she held up a finger for every reason. "Dehydration, malnutrition, the like."

Rima gave her a confused look, and Amu shrugged. "My mentor talked a lot during practice."

The blonde gave her a look of somewhat acknowledgment and said, "I say we camp out here for the night."

The pinkette shot her a look that couldn't have said anything else but, '_Are you stupid or dumb?'_

Rima sighed. "Guess not, huh?"

"No." Amu shook her head in exasperation and pulled the map out.

Rima groaned as she hoisted the large care package on her back and followed Amu into the dark depths of the forest.

* * *

"Geez, Hinamori, I was wondering when you were going to get here!"

Sheepishly, she gave a laugh and averted eye contact with General Jin. He was the commander's brother; Kee was only older by minutes. They looked like the twins they were, but judging by personality, one could barely tell. Kee needed more control and always seemed uptight, whereas Jin was easygoing and only loosely held onto his subordinates.

Rima gave him a short nod, which he returned with a smile and short greeting.

Suddenly, his face turned serious. "Some scouts told me you were captured." It was more like a statement, and Amu knew. She looked at him in the eye and gave a slow nod. "Mashiro, also?" Another nod. "Strange," he muttered to himself.

"They let us go—!" Rima jabbed Amu in the side, hard, with her elbow, "I mean, the prince let us go...sir," she added as an afterthought.

Jin nodded and rubbed his chin. "Okay," he answered. "Did he set conditions, or…?"

"He said he'll hold me to a future favor."

The young general gave a thoughtful nod. "Alright. I'll keep this bit of information in mind. Be sure to tell my brother what happened." He turned around and left, leaving Rima and Amu standing in the middle of the large room.

"Don't you think he should have been more worried?" Rima suddenly asked.

Amu gave her a look. "What?"

"The prince said we were unconscious for at least a day."

Amu shook her head. "And?"

"In normal circumstances, being gone for a day doesn't really strike as odd, but in this situation, what with Angels running around hunting down humans, don't you think he'd be a little more concerned? I mean, think about it, he would have called Kee, right? And would ask for the statuses of the personnel, which he had been expecting to send the care package, but instead, he let it be."

"What are you talking about," Amu deadpanned. _This is getting nowhere_.

"We were supposed to be here the night before," Rima continued, "but we weren't."

The pinkette sighed. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

The small blonde glared up at Amu. "What I mean is, he should have been more concerned, instead of just calmly asking where we've been and why we weren't here. He shouldn't have just said, "Oh my gosh, Hinamori, you're finally here blah blah," he should have freaked, demanding what happened and stuff. I mean, that's what I think the general would really do. And he didn't even ask for the care package!" The girl turned and gestured to the large canvas backpack.

Amu shook her head. "I still don't get it."

"Obviously," Rima murmured to herself.

"I heard that."

"I don't care." The blonde sighed. "Look, just keep an eye out for him, alright? He's acting different, and it's giving me a bad vibe."

Amu opened her mouth to say something, but Rima hushed her and said something about someone coming.

"Hello?" The voice echoed, and a boy walked out from the doorway. He turned his head to look around, and when he spotted the duo, he smiled and waved. "Hey!"

Awkwardly, Amu gave a short nod and Rima slightly waved.

He ran up to them, and said, "The general sent me to get you guys. He said Mashiro should know her way around, but he wanted me to show you guys to where you'll be staying for the night."

Rima held a hand up to keep him from continuing. "It's fine. Tell the general we'll be leaving soon."

The pinkette discreetly pinched Rima's side. "What she means is, we'll be leaving to our room soon."

The boy gave them a confused look, shrugged, and turned to walk away.

The blonde gave Amu a glare, to which Amu returned with throwing her arms in the air and a face as they followed the boy.

'_What were you thinking_?' Amu furiously mouthed.

'_Hello! Suspicious general!_' Rima mouthed back with equal furiousness.

They went into a long hallway, and the boy went into an explanation of hallways full of rooms for different things. "The right hall on this floor is used as a housing type of thing."

Disinterested, Amu and Rima numbly nodded. Not that the boy noticed; he was walking in front of them.

Suddenly he stopped, and the two nearly ran into him. "Anyways, here's the room you'll stay in for the night!" he said with a grin. "If you need anything, find someone around somewhere!"

He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "It'll stay unlocked unless you lock it from the inside."

Amu nodded and walked in, examining the sparsely furnished room. The walls were painted a smooth dark blue and the beds were hanging from the ceiling on nylon ropes.

The orange sunlight that seeped through the leaves of bushes, stones, and finally the window lit the room and gave Amu a slight headache from the sharp contrast of colors. Nonetheless, Amu gave somewhat of a contented sigh. She couldn't remember when the last time she stayed in a room with a window was.

Rima had disappeared behind the door that probably led to the bathroom, and Amu let herself lay down in the bed beside the window. She felt the need to completely relax—something she hasn't been able to do since her parents—

_No, no, no, no, don't go there_, Amu thought to herself as she violently shook her head, as if that could rid those thoughts.

Instead, she closed her eyes, breathed in and out slowly through her nose and let her mind drift away from the dark parts of her thoughts. It still went back to the war, the humans in hiding…the prince.

Her clothes stuck to her skin uncomfortably as she waiting for Rima to finish with diminishing patience. When the blonde girl walked out in a black t-shirt and dull green sweatpants that held her ankles in elastic cuffs, Amu stood and went into the bathroom to take a—cold—shower.

She turned off the water and pulled on a tight black t-shirt and grey track pants that barely stretched down to her ankle. Amu walked out through the door with her clothes in her hands. Carefully, she pulled the pieces of metal plating from the garments and laid them on top of her folded clothes next to the bag of supplies.

She laid down in the bed, thinking to herself.

_How much longer will this war go on_? she asked herself before falling the depths of sleep swallowed her.

* * *

"_Mom, do you know what those _things_ are coming out of the guy's back?" Amu asked as she pointed to the television. Her mom picked up the remote control in the kitchen and turned it off._

"_Nothing, Amu. Hey, dad and I found this board game in the closet in the basement. Do you want to play with us and Ami?"_

_._

"_School can't be canceled!" Amu exclaimed, incredulous. "Midterm exams start today!"_

_Her father gave her a slight smile. "I guess they start tomorrow, then."_

_._

"_Hide while you still can! Escape! Survi—!" the mayor pleaded on the television. Amu's eyes widened in interest._

"_Mom! I think they're doing that fake documentary thing again!" Amu called from the living room._

"_What?" her mom asked as she poked a head from the corner to look. "Oh, yes, honey, the fake documentaries…right."_

"_Yeah, anyways, are dad and Ami going to be back by dinner? Her dance lessons aren't that important," Amu asked._

"_I don't know, dear." The pinkette didn't miss the sad tone laced in the answer._

"..._Do you even know where they are?"_

_Amu's mother dropped the plate, and it shattered on the floor. "No..."_

.

"Hinamori! Hey, Amu! _Amu!_"

She jolted, immediately sitting up. Amu looked around, seeing the blue walls of the room and Rima's worried eyes. She panted and buried her thin fingers into her mess of bubblegum pink hair.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, concern weaved into the question.

Amu gave a shaky sigh. "Yeah," she muttered, "yeah." Cold sweat wet the roots of her hair, and her heart pounded in her chest.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Amu pulled her hands out of her sticky hair and laid them in her lap. She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall.

"It's six-thirty, if you can't read it well," Rima said.

A heavy silence hung in the air, and Amu felt the need to cry—not that she really could.

"Two years is a long time," the blonde said.

Meekly, Amu nodded.

Mashiro began tracing circles into her other palm. "My parents fought a lot, and I was usually caught in the middle or was the cause of it."

The pinkette looked at her with sorry eyes, and Rima shook her head. "Nothing could be done about it, but still they lived together. I didn't know why, honestly. And I hated them for it. But when the Angels," she stopped abruptly, clutching her heart, "when the Angels showed up and killed them." She drew a shaky breath in. "Oh God, I couldn't do a single thing but realize how important they really were."

Amu put her hand on her shoulder, and Rima stopped. "My dad and sister went missing before my mom did. I don't really know if they're alive or not, but I know my mom's gone." The pain rocketed through her chest, and Amu found herself doing the same thing Rima did. She grasped the fabric that covered her heart. "They tried to keep the whole thing a secret from me," she murmured, more to herself.

Heavy silence filled the room once more, and Amu sighed.

"Honestly, I don't really think it helps to talk about it," the pinkette said. "It doesn't change what happened."

"Yeah."

"…We should probably get ready to leave and tell the general we're leaving early."

Rima turned to look at her. "We don't tell him anything. We leave the care package with one of the subordinates and go back. It's an eight mile difference, and we need to get back fast."

Reluctantly, Amu sighed an, "Alright."

* * *

They walked through the deserted town. It seemed a bit different from the last time they went through, though Amu couldn't tell what.

Suddenly, the sound of running feet rushed behind her and the surge of wind made her loose hair fly in every direction.

She pulled the knife out from the pocket in the back of her pants, and Mashiro whipped her pistol out. The clouds drifted with the wind, and the sun was blocked out. A large shadow loomed over them and slowly grew smaller as the airborne object—er, person—landed on the ground.

In front of Amu stood the prince, with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. "I'll need that favor from you now."


	5. Pervert

**Disclaimer: **Ermagawd, you guys, this chapter is almost completely mine /Shot. Okay, some of it is still ShellyCullen's, but I used a lot and rewrote it into my own scene. And I added a lot of stuff (2k+ words, gais). So, yeah..._  
_

Anyways, the plot and other technicalities still go to ShellyCullen.

And Shugo Chara isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Pervert

_In front of Amu stood the prince, with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. "I'll need that favor from you now."_

The prince stood a merely two feet away from her; he wore a tight shirt with a nylon sleeveless jacket over it.

He pulled a hand from his pocket and brought his arm across his abdomen. He slightly bowed, still looking Amu in the eye. When he straightened himself and put his arm at his side, Amu noticed the dark stain that nearly soaked through the black cotton of his sleeve.

He noticed her looking at it, _staring_ at it, and he found the emotion flashing through her golden eyes easily. A smirk tugged a corner of his thin lips as he asked a simple, "Worried?"

At that, Amu's face flushed a furious red, and the prince couldn't help but find it a bit endearing. "Sh-shut up," she muttered.

The smirk fell from his face as his vision began to blur. "I need that favor," he repeated.

Amu blinked at him, unsure. She felt somewhat obligated to help, but at the same time, she had the need to reject him. Finally, she decided, "Depends."

He sighed through his nose. The prince needed to answer fast; he was getting lightheaded and was struggling not to sway. He gestured to the wound on his abdomen. The blood farthest from the wound was already starting to dry, but the red liquid continued to flow and soak through his shirt.

He groaned, so soft Amu could barely hear him, before he fell to his knees and hit the sandy ground below him.

Rima stood, watching as Amu rushed to him in frantic worry and flipped him over. The sand was colored bright red; she pulled his shirt up to reveal the gaping wound that ran diagonally across his abdomen, along with several scratches. She wondered if there were any on his chest or other parts of his body, but decided to worry about that later.

She turned to look at Rima with wide eyes. "How far are we from base camp?"

The girl looked around, and Amu assumed she's seen the map enough times to know where they are without looking at it. "A few miles, four at the most; if we run without banging him up, we should be able to get him back in a little over an hour."

Amu pressed her hands on the wound, keeping even pressure.

"Check the bag for a med kit," Amu said before she bit her lip.

The pinkette didn't know how to handle these types of situations. Nikaido may have talked a lot about survival skills, but not _these_ survival skills. Rima pulled the metal box out and tossed it to Amu, watching as it hit the ground and skidded the rest of the distance.

Reluctantly, Amu pulled a hand off of his wound and watched as the blood seeped through the spaces between her fingers. She quickly averted her eyes to the box and opened it with her free hand. Her eyes scanned the contents, and she decided to grab the scissors. She cut his shirt open and pulled the cloth aside. Involuntarily, she let her eyes wander; Amu blushed as she shook her head.

Rima was by her side by now, and handed Amu the things she asked for.

The blonde passed her a rag soaked in rubbing alcohol; Amu wiped away as much blood as she could with as much speed as possible to keep the flowing blood from smearing and creating an even bigger mess. She cursed, and asked for the roll of bandages.

The white cotton landed in her outstretched hand. "Mashiro, I need you to hold him up to get these bandages on him."

The small girl nodded and shuffled to the prince's head. Lifting him up with all the strength she could muster, she managed to get him in an upright position. He was deadweight against her, and Rima struggled to keep him there.

Working quickly, Amu wrapped the bandages around his abdomen tightly and watched as the bright blood blossomed on the bandages. She wrapped layer after layer until the blood couldn't bleed through anymore. Ripping the end in the middle, she wrapped the two strips across his back and abdomen and tied it at the end.

Sitting back on her bottom, Amu sighed in some kind of relief. Rima somewhat playfully pushed the prince towards the pinkette, and she jumped. He was unconscious as he leaned against her shoulder.

She blushed and couldn't help but slowly put her arms around him.

_So warm..._

Amu buried her face in his dark hair and let out a breathy sigh.

_Soft._

"Hinamori," Rima called.

Amu hummed absentmindedly, reveling the feeling of the prince's hair in between her fingers.

"I know you two are love birds and all, but we need to get to base," the blonde said as she cocked a hip to the side, putting her petite hand on it.

Wordlessly, Amu's face turned a furious red when she realized what she had been doing. Bringing the prince's arm around her shoulder, Amu firmly wrapped an arm around his back and hoisted him up with her as she stood. She hobbled over to Rima, and before she reached the small girl, the blonde turned around and walked away with Amu following her.

* * *

"You realize what you're doing, right?" Rima asked as she led Amu through the forest. The map was stretched out and held in her small hands, and Rima glanced over her shoulder at the pair every now and then.

"Bringing the prince of the Angels of Darkness to our home base so he and his crew can kill us all?" Amu sardonically asked.

"Well, that, and," Rima closed her mouth, keeping whatever she was going to say to herself.

"...and?" Amu said, expectantly.

Rima shook her hand and swatted the air in a dismissive manner. "Nothing," she answered, "nothing."

The pinkette rolled her eyes.

"You," Rima paused to sigh, "you really don't know what's going on, do you?"

"Aside from the fact I'm leading us all to our doom?"

The blonde sighed. _She's hopeless_. "Look, Hinamori, I'd definitely be all for you two and everything, you know, if he wasn't _the prince of darkness_." Rima stopped and turned around to give Amu the sternest glare she could achieve with her cherubic face. "But he is, and he's probably got an entire army of Angels waiting on him to give the green light to raid the base."

Amu sighed. "I know. He didn't exactly save our lives, but he let us keep them.

"And we should let him keep his." Amu looked at the prince with worried eyes.

Rima turned around once more, but didn't move.

The small girl continued walking without looking back at Amu. A smile tugged at her lips, and she couldn't help but give in.

* * *

How Amu and Rima managed to make it to the pinkette's room without being seen by anybody was a feat that was near-miraculous.

Carefully, Amu set the prince on her bed. Rima went off to tell the commander of the recent events.

The pinkette sat beside his head and leaned against the headboard of the bed. She ran her fingers through his hair, and caught the ghost of a smirk flash on his face before going back to the calm expression—of false sleep. Her eyebrow twitched as her lips pulled into a frown. Pretending to be unknowing of the prince's conscious state, she buried her fingers in his hair and grabbed it, pulling an entire fistful of his hair.

Immediately, his hands flew up to his hair, and she watched in satisfaction as he winced.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to pull on people's hair when they're sleeping?" The playful expression from his face followed Amu's when hers fell. He didn't know what he said, but frowned and apologized anyways.

Dismissively, she patted his hand away from reaching her shoulder and shook her head as she stood to go to the bathroom; her pink bangs covered her eyes to keep the prince from reading them.

He cursed as he sat up to follow her, only to fall as the sudden rush of blood to his head clouded his vision and made him lightheaded. He cursed once more under his breath, and winced when he realized the wound on his abdomen started bleeding through the bandages.

"Shit," he cursed as he fell unconscious.

* * *

Rima stood silently, watching Kee uncharacteristically laughing. He wouldn't—_couldn't_—stop. His face was red, and he was clutching his stomach. Unshed tears sat on his eyelids, and he was supporting himself on one arm that was gripping the table.

"You," he began before laughing again, "you really want me to believe that you have the _Prince_ of Darkness in Hinamori's room?"

Rima nodded, and he went into a short bout of more laughter. "Right, right, and I have Godzilla under my bed."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "I'm being serious; he's really in there! We were on the way back from being missing for a day and staying a day at another camp, and he lands in front of us and he goes, "Yo, Amu, I need that favor now because I let you keep your lives blah blah blah," and has this _gaping_ wound on his stomach and Amu felt bad so she took him in and patched him up and then she took him back to her room and he's in there right now!" she finished in one big breath. Rima panted from the lack of air and somewhat irritation.

Kee blinked at her. "And you are sure this is the prince himself?"

She gave a groan of frustration. "Yes, I'm sure! Go look!"

His lips tilted downward on one side and said, "Alright."

* * *

Amu sat on the sink, staring at the door in front of her.

She shook her head, trying to collect her thoughts, but in a couple minutes, everything would slip again. Her mind blanked when the prince mentioned her parents, and she just stood and left.

_What am I doing?_

Amu jumped off the sink and turned around to face it. She crouched down and opened the cabinet under the sink; pulling out a metal box, she stood and walked out, closing the door behind her.

The sight in front of her left her shocked, and she cursed. _Of course his wound reopens when I'm gone._

Rushing, she grabbed her pillow and folded it in half. Amu pushed the prince up and slipped the pillow under his shoulder blades, keeping his abdomen off the bed. She grabbed the roll of bandages and wrapped more layers of the white cotton around.

In that moment, Rima walked through the door, and Amu looked up.

"Mashiro, you have no idea how gla—!" She stopped, eyes widening when she saw the commander standing behind the blonde. "H-hey, commander..." she trailed off, slightly gulping.

"Hinamori," he said, "finish treating him, and we'll talk afterwards."

Solemnly, she nodded with her lips pressed in a thin line.

Mashiro told him to wait outside the door instead of in the room if Kee wanted, but he shook his head and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall.

When Amu finished, she turned to look at the commander expectantly, and he began,

"You have some explaining to do."

Amu took a deep breath to calm down and started. "It started a couple days ago when you sent us on the assignment to deliver multiple care packages to the survival camps around the area." _It felt more like weeks ago_, she thought. "Mashiro and I managed to drop off all except one, sir, to the camp farthest out." Kee nodded, telling her to continue. "We were only a couple miles away, but we had depleted all water sources. We decided that if we ate the dried foods, that would make it worse. So, we continued, dehydrated. And the both of us fell unconscious. When we came to, we were cuffed and tied and held captive in one of the Angel's base camps. We were kept in a secluded room, I think, and the only people there besides Mashiro and myself were the prince and another Angel. I managed to get myself unbound and started a short episode of fighting. Mashiro knocked the Angel out, but—"

Kee dismissively waved his hand. "And I know the rest; Mashiro filled me in on the end and how he got here." He stood and brushed off imaginary dust off his pants. "Why, Hinamori, did you decide to follow through with the favor you owed him?"

"...I don't know," she said, "sir."

He sighed as he pinched the bridge of him nose. "Alright, we'll keep him here for the time being. The moment he wakes up, Hinamori, get some answers on what he needs you to do. Get as many details as you possibly can."

Amu nodded.

"As for you, Mashiro, the Fujisaki guy is waiting for you in the gym. Said something about dancing or whatever," Kee said as he waved a hand.

The blonde blushed as she headed towards the door. Before she made it through the threshold, Kee grabbed her arm. "This stays between the three of us." Rima and Amu nodded, and the blonde girl rushed through the door.

The commander turned back to Amu. "Keep him hidden. He'll be a dead man the moment he walks out your door."

Amu looked down at the prince with worried eyes. "Yes, sir."

* * *

The pinkette blearily blinked, having just woken up from a nap. She had her knees drawn towards her and an arm loosely wrapped around her legs. Her other arm was outstretched, and her hand rested on top of the prince's head. She stretched her legs out, hearing her knees pop, and twisted to the side, listening to the pops her back made.

He hadn't woken up yet, and Amu was somewhat grateful. She pulled the nylon jacket open, brushing aside the crusted-with-blood flaps of his cut shirt. The bandages were wrapped tightly around his abdomen, revealing the toned muscle underneath. She slightly blushed and traced the area of the bandages where it was tinted a slight brown.

Amu stood and walked to the small nightstand that stood beside the bed. She grabbed the kit on it and put it beside where she was about to sit. After carefully setting herself on the bed, she gently nudged his arm and watched for his reactions. His nose twitched, and Amu couldn't help but compare him to a cat. She shook his arm gently, and he swatted her hand away. Giggling to herself, she grabbed his shoulder and shook it more vigorously. He stirred, and Amu stopped. When he stilled, she frowned and put her hands on his chest and shook his entire body.

A midnight blue eye cracked open, and after some seconds, the other opened. He blinked at her with slightly wider eyes while sitting up. "Amu."

She frowned. "I don't know if I should be concerned or find it funny that you know my name but I don't know yours."

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and Amu thought back to the cat metaphor. "In time," he mumbled, "you'll find out."

She raised an eyebrow. "You can't tell me now?"

The prince looked at her with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "No," he answered, the sound of a chuckle lacing in with his voice, "I don't really feel like it."

"Huh," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Whatever," she mumbled under her breath. Looking back at the prince, she noticed he was still without a proper shirt. The black one he wore before was cut open, and the nylon coat was gone and must have been thrown to the side while she was still sleeping. "I should probably change your bandages," she paused and bit her lip before continuing, "and get you a new set of clothes." Her bottom lip returned to its place between her teeth, and she expected some form of teasing to come out of the prince's mouth.

"Yeah," he answered before lying down on his back. "Could you go get the change of clothes first, though?"

Rapidly blinking at him in slight surprise, she slightly nodded, and got up to go to a friend's room to borrow his clothes.

* * *

Amu groaned in frustration for what seemed like the nth time in the twenty minutes she spent trying to get the prince to change his bandages.

"Just stay still and let me cut it off!" she scolded, scissors in hand.

The prince gulped, and tried to reach for the sharp tool. "It's fine, Amu, I can cut my own bandages off."

"Oh, really?" she asked, hands on her hips—with the scissors still in her small hand. "Says the man who couldn't figure out how to get the steel plating out of the shirt."

The prince furrowed his eyebrows, and his cheeks slightly puffed out as he pouted. "I don't usually have metal in my clothes, okay?"

Leaping at him in a chance—even slightly—of vulnerability, she landed neatly in his lap with one hand on his shoulder. She forced him down in his surprise and worked quickly to get the scissor blade under the layers of bandages.

"Ha!" she exclaimed with triumph, managing to cut through an entire layer without the prince trying to throw her off.

He sat up, keeping himself up with his palms pressed into the mattress under them. He stared into Amu's eyes, and she stared back into his—blue into gold, gold into blue. The scissors fell out of her hand, forgotten as it clattered to the floor. The bandages began undoing themselves, the layers under slowly revealing the defined lumps under his skin.

Slowly, _agonizingly_ slowly, the prince leaned forward and let their foreheads touch. Her eyes fluttered, but stayed open, as her lips parted to let out a cool sigh. Her breath danced across his lips and had the distinct smell of strawberries. He could see the blush creeping into her cheeks and probably her ears; he let his eyes slide closed and leaned forward, lightly brushed his lips over hers before gently pressing his lips on the pink pair.

She didn't move, and he felt panic beginning to grow as butterflies in the pit of his stomach. He moved a hand to the back of her neck and pulled towards him. And the bluenette nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Amu push back with slight force.

He pulled away first and watched as Amu bit her lip and fumbled with her hands.

She stumbled over her words, "Wh-what was the favor, again?" She avoided eye contact, seemingly persistent to act as if what just happened never did.

He sighed, and ran the hand that was on Amu's neck through his midnight blue hair. "I need you to let me stay here." And she looked up at him with brilliant gold eyes. "Even if it's just for a little while," he said. Amu bit her lip and once again averted her eyes.

"Why?"

"It's the reason for this," he said as he pointed to the mess of bandages crusted with dried blood.

Amu numbly nodded as she reached for the white cotton to unwind it. "What happened," she asked, quiet.

The prince shook his head as his eyes clouded over with slight anger. Amu shuddered, but continued to unwind the bandages. Tossing the bloodied bandages to the side, she grabbed the cloth that was soaking in the now-lukewarm water on the small nightstand beside her. Wringing the towel of most of the water, she brought it to the prince's abdomen and wiped the dried blood away, revealing the deep red wound that began to slightly bleed in some areas.

He watched as she worked on his stomach, feeling the slight sting from the wound. He slightly wondered how the wound on his abdomen didn't require stitches.

Suddenly, she stopped in the middle of wrapping new bandages around his stomach, and looked at him with questioning eyes. Slightly, his eyebrows furrowed, and realized what she wanted to ask.

"Ikuto," he said. "It's Ikuto Tsukiyomi."

Her eyes widened at his last name. "Why isn't your last name…?" she trailed off.

Ikuto shook his head. "That's for me to know."

Amu pouted but let it go.

"I'm serious, Amu," he said as he grabbed her hand. "I really need you to let me stay here, just for a while."

"How," she started, slightly stumbling over her words, "how do I know you don't have an army, waiting for you to let them raid the base?"

"You don't," he said, with a slight smirk on his face.

Amu scowled, and punched his abdomen, right above the wound.

He winced and gave a low grunt. "Jesus," he muttered.

"I'll kill you if I have to," she said to him, hand itching to reach for the knife in her pocket.

Ikuto scowled. He opened his mouth to say something, but a knock on the door cut him off.

"Amu?" Yaya asked, knocking. "I'm coming in!"

The pinkette cursed under her breath as she scrambled to push everything off the bed and under it, pulling the blanket over Ikuto and sitting on a surprised Ikuto wrapped in sheets. He wriggled, trying to at least get comfortable as the young girl—right?—began talking to Amu.

Amu struggled to stay sitting on him. He continued to squirm, and Amu poked him in the back, hard, and immediately, he stilled.

Yaya looked at her curiously. "Amu, are you okay? Why do you look annoyed? And what's that lump you're sitting on?"

The other girl gulped as Ikuto let a smirk come to his face. "I'm fine, Yaya," she said. "I'm just a little worn out from the mission I got back from yesterday, promise." To spite her, Ikuto moved, and that earned another discreet poke.

"Why's the lump moving?"

"Oh, uh," Amu began, "it's this—this new pillow…thing…I got…yeah. It's supposed to help me relax," she lied.

"Uh-huh…" Yaya answered, somewhat uncertain. "Okay, well, I only came to check up on you, so, bye!"

When the girl left, Amu sprang off Ikuto, who pulled the covers off. "You just love having me under you, huh?"

Amu furiously blushed and turned her back to him as a smirk stretched across his face. "Shut up," she mumbled. "I was ordered to keep you a secret, and I intend to follow it."

"Whatever you say," he said as he leaned over her shoulder, "_Amu_." Quickly, he pecked her cheek before rushing to the bathroom with a change of clothes in his hand.

"Pervert," she muttered as she rubbed the spot where his lips had been just seconds ago. "Stupid, freaking pervert."


	6. Screwing

**Disclaimer:** This entire chapter is mine \O/ (Ye-yaaaah!) /Shot. But still, the characters aren't mine and the concept is ShellyCullen's. (I think my story line is going to be different, so technically, this far in, the plot's going to be mine...)

On another note, this is the last chapter for the next two-three weeks (the last week will probably be me grueling through jet lag (thirteen hour difference between where I am and where I'm going)), so don't expect anything new for a bit. But I'm pretty determined to get this finished, even if it means it means blowing off work and stuff, so don't worry about it being abandoned or cut early, or whatever.

On another another note, **this chapter is like a filler type of thing to clear some murky things up, but it still has everything to do with the story, so don't skip it! **And the chapter's a day early, if you were wondering (which you probably weren't, but still /Shrug)**  
**

And Shugo Chara isn't mine.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Screwing

Months passed by with no one noticing the prince—of the very people they were hiding from—hidden in one of their comrade's room. Amu called it miraculous; Rima called it Fate smiling down on them; Kee called it, "Anyone who dares to go into Hinamori's room will be thrown out to the Angels."

Okay, not really, but he gave orders for no one to come near Hinamori's room—without having this bit of information come to Amu and/or Rima's knowledge, of course.

So, yeah, months—of endless card games, snacks and food smuggled, stealing Fujisaki and Souma's clothes without them noticing, went by; Ikuto was brought to the base during the summer, and it was nearing winter.

Aside from that, Amu found herself in Rima and Ikuto's company in her room more often than not, and Yaya managed to somehow disappear from Amu's life (for the time being, maybe). She overheard some people talking about how the new Kairi-scientist-geek-kid somehow managed to get together with the cute-but-kind-of-annoying-at-the-same-time Yaya. And needless to say, Amy was relieved—because that's one less person she'd have to worry about finding Ikuto in her room.

* * *

Rima sighed as she lay on Amu's bed, head hanging upside-down off the foot of the mattress.

Amu raised a quizzical eyebrow, looking up from her game of cards—strip poker (how he managed her to join was beyond her)—with Ikuto. "What's going on," she slowly asked.

The small blonde sighed once more, and Amu slightly narrowed her eyes at her while puffing her cheeks out. "How am I supposed to know what's wrong if you're just going to answer with sighs?"

Rima mirrored Amu's face: puffed cheeks, narrowed eyes. "I think it'd be best if we talk about it without _that_ around to listen."

Ikuto's lips pulled downwards in a playful frown. "I'm still here, you know."

"Unfortunately," Rima muttered.

Amu rolled her eyes. "Alright; we'll continue this game when I get back, okay?"

The shirtless, sockless, and soon-to-be-pant-less Ikuto (because the fully-clothed Amu had straights the entire game, and she had a flush that time) pouted. "Can't stand to be in my company anymore?"

"Shut up," she mumbled as she put her cards in one back pocket and the deck in the other (because she can't be sure if Ikuto won't cheat, especially after her hands won every time), "you know that's not true." Her cheeks turned pink as Ikuto gave a smirk.

(Because Ikuto is just an annoying guy—Angel?—and he loves teasing her until her face is ready to practically burn off and melt to a puddle that will stain the floor if she doesn't clean it fast enough.)

"We'll be back in five, okay?"

"Okay," Ikuto agreed, pursing his lips.

Amu and Rima walked out, shutting the door behind them.

"Okay," Amu said, "what do you want to talk about?"

Rima looked up at her. "Do you know what you're doing?"

The pinkette gaped at her. "Not this again."

"I'm being serious!"

"And so am I!"

Rima groaned, covering her face with petite hands. "You're falling, Hinamori." Amu gave the blonde a pointed look that clearly said, '_What the heck are you talking about?_'

"Like, you're not falling for a trick. I mean, you're _falling_. And this isn't the, 'Oh, help because I'm falling from tripping over a pebble of temporary infatuation!' I'm talking about the, 'I don't know what I'm doing because I threw myself over a cliff and am now diving into an eternally dark abyss of a forbidden love,' _falling_."

Amu blinked at her, once, twice, three times before bursting into the most painful fit of laughter she has ever burst into. And it wasn't long before Ikuto was beginning to wonder why Amu was laughing so much and poked his head out of the door—only to be met with the sight of a comically fuming Rima and a red-faced, gut-clutching, wall-leaning, tear-streaming Amu.

She laughed, telling Rima to wait with the occasional raise of a hand to signal she's almost finished—when she really wasn't.

As her laughter died down, she ushered Ikuto back into the room, leaving him pouting as she closed the door in his face.

"I'm," she choked back another fit of laughing, "sorry. Sorry. Just—that was the longest analogy you've ever used, so."

"I'm serious, Hinamori," Rima said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes held only seriousness—and a spark of concern which she'll never admit to anyone. "You're falling hard; it's getting bad."

The mirthful expression on Amu's face fell, and seriousness hardened her look. "I—I know. I don't think I can pull myself out, either."

"That's what I was afraid of," Rima muttered before a mischievous glint flashed across her eyes. "So," she drawled slowly, "has he gotten to second base, yet?"

At an alarming rate, Amu's face flushed to a shade darker than red, and Rima nearly threw herself into a laughing fit much like Amu's earlier. "H-he hasn't e-even gotten t-to f-first, yet…"

"I'm just yanking your chain, Hinamori," Rima giggled, not at all reassuring. "I'm all for you guys hooking up and whatever, you know, even if he is second-in-command to our enemies." She gave Amu a serious look. "Just know there are going to be some boulders, mud, rocks, and all that in your way."

Silence filled the air; it was almost comfortable but still awkward. And Amu broke the silence.

"I really like him, Mashiro, and I don't what to do," Amu said, covering her face with her hands in almost exasperation. "I don't know if he's just screwing around with me or what."

"I know, Amu," Rima said, offering a small smile. "I know."

* * *

Ikuto sat against the door, listening carefully. Occasionally, he'd hear one of them say something and actually make out what they just said, but the other times, he heard muffled voices speaking—the metal door didn't help, either.

His ears perked, hearing bits and pieces of what Amu was saying,

"_I really like him, Mashiro_…_don't know what to do…don't know if he's just screwing around…"_

He didn't know what to feel—on one hand, he wanted to jump for joy when he heard that she reciprocated his feelings (even if just slightly), but he wanted to rush out there and reassure her with showers of kisses and compliments to show that he's completely serious. That second feeling was a bit too sappy for his tastes—and would probably scare her off.

* * *

Amu turned to the door and quietly said they were coming back in. When the metal door creaked as it opened, the pinkette was met with the sight of Ikuto lying on his stomach with his chin resting in his hands that were supported by his elbows. "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, yeah," Amu dismissively waved a hand. "Let's get back to that game." She reached into her back pockets for her hand and the deck, setting the latter cards on the floors between Ikuto and herself. "You're going to get your ass whooped with this hand."

"Sounds kinky," Ikuto smirked, "let's do it."

Amu's face flushed a furious red, and Ikuto chuckled. "Sh-shut up."

* * *

Ikuto ran a frustrated hand through his hair as he sat Indian-style on Amu's bed. Amu and Rima were in the mess hall getting lunch and smuggling back a box of food for Ikuto, leaving him with nothing to do.

He lifted his shirt, grimacing at the sight of the pink scar that ran diagonally across his abdomen. He traced it with a finger, visibly wincing as he felt the ridges under the pad of the digit. Still, he absentmindedly ran his hand across the flawed skin, his mind reeling as it recalled the incident that led him to the wound—to Amu.

Johnson Dark was not his father.

And Ikuto Tsukiyomi would be damned if he was anything like that man.

His thoughts were interrupted from the knock at the door before Amu said she was coming in. The prince dropped the scowl off his face and straightened his shirt. When the pinkette entered, she had a Styrofoam box in one hand and a large porcelain (black) mug in the other hand. "Hey," she greeted continued without waiting for Ikuto to respond, "lunch was weird today, so I don't know if you'll like it." She stopped to sip on the steaming liquid from the mug. "But, I don't know, we don't usually have grilled salmon with steamed rice and broccoli."

Ikuto shrugged, and Amu handed the box to him while sitting on the bed. It creaked in protest from the slight gain of weight.

"Utensils?" he asked.

"It's in the box." She continued sipping from the cup, and from where Ikuto was sitting, he could smell the telltale scent of strong green tea.

"Anything to drink?"

"You can have some of this if you want," she said, gesturing to the mug.

He shook his head. "If you didn't get anything, it's fine."

Amu's lips quirked into a smile, "It's kind of the third mug I've had. Hotori and Souma somehow managed to find me in the mess hall and talked an earful, so I got something like a headache. The tea makes it better."

"Which explains the three mugs you have had?" the prince asked as his eyebrow rose.

"Kind of, yes."

It fell silent, and it was neither awkward nor comfortable. They sat in silence, and Ikuto resisted the urge to take the mug from her hands and drink from it; he was starting to get jittery and nervous for no apparent reason.

The prince ran a hand through his blue hair, and he caught Amu glancing at him while doing it. He turned his head to look at her, and she looked away as her face erupted in a blush. His eyebrows furrowed, and he reached a hand out to cup her face and turn it to look at him.

He leaned in, and Amu did nothing but lean into his hand and look straight into his eyes. He could practically see the butterflies that danced in her stomach from her eyes, and the heat radiated into his hand, warming it. Their noses and foreheads touched and Ikuto went in for the kill.

But before his lips met with hers, Amu shied away before completely turning her body so her back would face him.

The prince frowned, slightly frustrated with himself. "What's—" _wrong?_ He wanted to ask.

But he knew that Amu knew what the question was, but she didn't answer and let it linger, the rest unspoken, in the air.

"You're what's wrong," she answered, almost to herself.

"What?" Ikuto asked, a confusion expression overtaking his face. The fear and nervousness nearly stopped his heart. "How am I—"

"Why do you keep doing this to me?" she asked as she turned. Her golden eyes glistened; the tears were beginning to pool on her bottom eyelids. "You're always kissing me and goofing off. Do you know where that leads me?" She didn't wait for him to answer before she did. "Sleepless nights, doubting thoughts, regret, shit I don't want to deal with! Not now."

He stared at her, eye wide and mouth almost hanging open. She looked vulnerable with the tears in her eyes and her face red, but he fought to keep the urge to envelop her in his arms and whispering nothing but sweet things to her down.

Almost shamefully, he looked away to the side. "I—" _can't help it_.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Rima stood in the doorway, and immediately, she felt the heavy atmosphere.

Her expectant gaze fell on Ikuto. "You, come here, in the hallway, with me."

The bluenette gulped, slowly standing and hesitantly walking out the door.

The door closed, sealing his fate, and immediately, Rima fired off. "What did you do to her? Huh? Are you stupid?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course you are if you're this dense and oblivious to the point where you can't tell she obviously likes you. Are you an idiot?"

"I—"

"Of course," Rima muttered. "Look, that girl," Rima started as she pointed a thumb to the door, "she really likes you, okay? You got that, _lover boy_? So don't play like that. Especially since you like her just as much, if not more."

"What—"

"I may not know you too well, but it's pretty obvious."

"But—"

"Just shut up! _You_," Rima said as she poked a small finger into his chest, making him tilt back a good centimeter or two, "need to get over your casual teasing tendencies, and just tell her _you like her_, okay? You're practically in love with this kid."

"…"

"Nothing to say?" Rima continued without waiting for him to answer. "Good. Anything else before I decide against what I just asked?"

"Can you—"

"No. Now go in there and get her, tiger," she answered as she pushed him towards the door.

"But I can't—"

"God! What now?" Rima asked, exasperated.

"I can't do it," Ikuto answer, giving her a withered look.

"What? Ikuto Tsukiyomi," she threatened, "you are the prince—_the prince_—and you can't tell her how you feel?"

"No."

"Well, why the hell not?"

"It's more complicated than what you're making it out to be, Rima," Ikuto answered as his expression grew somewhat more desperate.

"Are you serious," she deadpanned. "How is it more complicated than you like her, she likes you, you tell her, she tells you, you and her hook up, and everyone lives happily ever after?"

"She thinks I'm screwing around," he answered.

"You might as well be, because you're not exactly dropping hints the size of _elephants_, you know."

"I don't want to scare her off, and dammit! Rima! I can't tell her because I'm the prince of your and her greatest enemy."

Rima fell silent, knowing where this was going to go; Ikuto knew just as well, but continued anyways.

"And even if I tell her, she tells me, we hook up and whatever the hell you were saying, what chance do we actually have? I'm practically the reason why these people are in the camps, barely surviving…"

"That's not true, and you damn well know it."

"What the hell, Rima?"

"I know you aren't that type of person, Tsukiyomi," Rima said as she looked up at him. Her caramel eyes bored into his blue ones.

"And how could you possible know that?" he asked, almost mockingly.

"It's written all over your face," Rima answered, completely serious. "This is Dark's fault. She could help you defeat him, you know."

Ikuto narrowed his eyes at her so he would look like he was glaring at her instead of having his eyes widen in surprise.

"I still can't tell her, Rima," Ikuto said.

The blonde groaned in frustration. "Fine." And a wicked smirk stretched across her face, scaring Ikuto (just a little bit, he swore). "In time, she'll find out."

The prince felt shudders rack through his body, and the goose bumps rose on his arms.

* * *

Rima left the issue alone as the weeks slowly passed by and she felt somewhat sated with Ikuto's—indirect—promise of telling Amu how he felt. However, it was taking longer than she expected, and it didn't help because Kee kept sending her to missions that always had something to do with the camp his brother was running. Jin gave her the creeps and something always jarred her off from him.

Other things were beginning to bother her as well: Like those prototype bracelets Kee gave Amu and Rima on that mission where they were kidnapped by the prince. Something was definitely going on with that.

Rima twisted the metal bracelet around her wrist—a habit she picked up ever since Kee gave it to her and Amu. Something was wrong, and Jin, and possibly Kee, was behind it.

If they were kidnapped, wouldn't something have alerted the base?

The matter of the issue had been left alone for too long, Rima decided as she stood up from the loveseat she was lying in while she was—distractedly—reading.

_I'll deal with it myself._


End file.
